New Coach Pleased With Airedales

Doug Loughridge is pleased with his first August of football drills as the new Alma head football coach.

Doug Loughridge is pleased with his first August of football drills as the new Alma head football coach.

“We’ve had a really, really good fall camp,” Loughridge said. “Things are really going well. The thing I like about it is we’ve been really, really physical. It took a while for the guys to realize what I expect, but after that first day of full pads we’ve kind of picked it up.”

The Airedales conducted their intrasquad scrimmage on Aug. 17 and Loughridge, who left Charleston in December after a successful run with the Tigers, liked what he saw out of his experienced defense, which returns six starters.

“I was really impressed with they way we ran to the football, defensively,” Loughridge said. “We had 11 guys to the ball on every play and were physical when we got there. There wasn’t a whole lot of missed tackles, which I was impressed with.”

Alma returns just one starter on the offensive line, which has been a major point of emphasis for Loughridge during summer and August drills.

“Offensively, I thought we did a good job lining up and running the football,” Loughridge said. “Our offensive line is progressively getting better every week. They’re no where near where I think they can be, but they are getting better every day.”

Junior Evan Burris and sophomore Alex Beneaux, who guided the junior high team to a 10-0 mark last year, continue to be locked in a quarterback race. Burris had little varsity playing time last year but guided the junior varsity on Monday nights.

“The quarterback battle is still a pretty good battle,” Loughridge said. “Evan and Alex are neck and neck, going back and forth. Evan is doing well in the things he is capable of doing, and Alex is doing the same.”

Alma will scrimmage at Southside at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday before opening the season Sept. 6 at Van Buren.

The Panthers have just 11 seniors who are guiding them through the final preseason drills and into their second season in the 5A-West.

“We started off with 34 in the seventh grade, which was a low number for us,” Clarksville head coach Michael Banning. “The nucleus of those guys have stuck together. There are just 11 of them, but it’s a dang good 11. They exemplify what we want as football players.”

They recently led the Panthers through an impressive practice.

“With all the rain, we practiced inside,” Banning said. “We didn’t know what we were going to get with an indoor practice, but it was one of the best practices I’ve been a part of in years. With time constraints, we were going to be finished, and I called them up. They wouldn’t have it.

“They ran outside, senior-led, and ran 10 100s, 10 40s and 10 10s, which we’ve been running all year. It was a great sign as a coach. You want the kids to take ownership with what we’re doing. It shows that they’re all in and that the seniors are going to get it done.”

Another thing Banning likes is that his Panthers are basically free of injury heading into Tuesday’s scrimmage.

“We’re healthy,” Banning said. “This time of the year, what you want to do is have a lot of instructional time and get out there and teach the kids, blocking and tackling. You don’t want injuries right now going into the scrimmage.”

Clarksville will host a scrimmage against Paris and Subiaco Academy on Tuesday. The Panthers will scrimmage Paris at 6 p.m. before scrimmaging Subiaco at about 7:15 p.m.

“The kids are ready to hit somebody other than themselves,” Banning said. “Practices are going real well. Defensively and offensively, we know each other so the defense will jump a lot of the offensive plays and the vice versa.”

Clarksville opens the season at Charleston on Sept. 6.

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